In various types of motor vehicles, including utility or van type vehicles, it is common practice to provide rear passenger seats that allow for conversion from an in-use seating mode to a stowed mode. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,417, issued Mar. 4, 1980 to Ferrara, which discloses a vehicle seat adapted to be converted from an in-use position to a folded stowed configuration. The Ferrara seat includes an upright seatback, adapted pivotable movement about its lower edge, providing a cargo floor extension over the area occupied by the seat cushion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,321, issued Sep. 18, 1990 to Martin et al., discloses a stowable vehicle seat with a seatback position controller. The Martin seat cushion moves from an elevated horizontal seating position to a stowed position adjacent the vehicle floor only upon movement of the seatback from an upright use position to a generally horizontal folded position. A parallel link arrangement is disclosed between the vehicle and the seat cushion providing a control linkage for shifting the link arrangement from a locked to a free position in response to movement of the seatback.